Stars and Dragons
by KuraraOkumura
Summary: After the Grand Magic Games, Lucy's celestial magic seems to be acting up. The rip and link between the celestial world and this one has widened, and the mage is being eaten alive by unleashed powers that suddenly aren't just her own anymore. Gajeel wants to help, and though he really doesn't have a clue how to do it well, at least he tries. Laxus x Gajeel x Lucy
1. Chapter 1: The Darkness

_A/N: Thank you to my beta CelestialCircumference, who did a great job at picking out my silly mistakes and typos - things I never notice with my own re-reads. xP_

_This story is dedicated to authors **leoslady4ever**, **Corpsies** and **Wild Rhov**, who made me absolutely adore this three-stand pairing! REMINDER: THIS STORY WILL BE AN EVENTUAL THREESOME ROMANTIC PAIRING BETWEEN LAXUS, GAJEEL AND LUCY (which means the story will include both M/M and F/M). I don't usually like giving spoilers as to relationships in my fics, but I feel it's necessary here in case some people don't like Laxus and Gajeel together or threesomes at all. : P_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail nor any of its characters: Hiro Mashima does. However, I own this fic, the plot, dialogues and situations the characters find themselves in._

_**Fanart** is welcome. : 3_

_If you like my work, **please go like my page KuraraOkumura's Disciples on Facebook**; I update about my fics there and interact directly with my fans if you guyz have any questions. I also have a **tumblr, kuraraokumura**. :3 And please do check my profile for the poll I've left there. You can vote for what fic/fandom you'd prefer me to post for next. : P_

_~Tenshi_

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CHAPTER 1: The Darkness

* * *

"Shit," Gajeel growled, struggling against the ice that held half his body prisoner against the wall.

Their mission had gone seriously out of control. Not a week ago, Makarov had set up six of the guild's strongest – Laxus, Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lucy and Gajeel – for a mission on a faraway island to neutralize and capture a dark mage who had apparently forced the initial inhabitants of the island out. From what they'd found, the mage was Water and Leech based, and had been here for some months now. The villagers had been driven out in the last couple of weeks by the water creatures invoked by him. Gajeel and the other Fairy Tail mages had come straight here, but the mage's strength was easily ten-fold what they'd first expected.

His element being fire, Natsu had long been 'extinguished' by the Water-based mage, and now lay on the floor of the giant cavern not far from where Gajeel had been trapped by a sudden gush of ice just minutes ago. Gray's energy and ice magic had been sucked right out of him by the dark mage, and he'd fallen to his knees with his eyes rolling back in his head not a minute into the fight. Erza had been blown out of the cave some time ago now, leaving a permanent hole in the roof of the place that let in just about enough light that Gajeel could see most everything that was going on. Laxus, and damn him because his lightning magic would have come in really handy against this water guy, had stayed outside to fight off some shady creatures that had been summoned by the mage. And now the only one of them left to fight the guy was blondie, her body glistening with sweat as she avoided the other mage's attacks while lashing out with her whip and summoning her spirits – but each and every one of the spirits' attacks just went right through the mage as though he were made of smoke. Or water. Loke's attacks seemed to have done some damage, but the girl was running out of energy fast, and the Lion's presence was constantly drawing on that energy. By Gajeel's estimation of the girl's panting and sweating, Loke was going to have to disappear soon, lest he end up sucking out her very life.

Right on cue, and with one last panicked glance at his master, Loke disappeared – without the usual flash of light and flurry. Normally, Gajeel knew that the Lion would have been able to open his own gate without taking up much of Lucy's own magic in the process, but he'd figured out some time ago that the two purple statuettes just outside the entrance of the cavern were probably magic blocks, draining on all of their magics as surely as the mage had himself done to Gray. Which meant that the girl was now well and truly alone for this, and try as he might, Gajeel just knew that he'd never break through the ice around him. It was as thick as his own body was high, and though he liked to think himself invincible, Fairy Tail had long taught him to know his own limits – and his were right here. And as he watched the quickly dwindling fight, his chest, legs and arms completely encased in ice, he figured that all of them were probably going to die here. He growled, crimson eyes quickly switching between Gray, Natsu and Lucy. _They're too young, _he thought desperately. _Much too young._

That's when it happened.

Right in front of him, herded back into a corner of the cavern, Lucy's demeanour had started to change. Though until now she'd been frantic and very obviously frightened, anger had started to show on her face, the whip in her hand quivering as she refused to back down any more than she already had. Her eyes were trained on the dark mage's uncovered face, and though Gajeel was too far to hear them, it seemed obvious that he was talking to her – taunting her, judging by the look on her face. Gajeel suddenly felt sorry for the little dark mage; he had to admit that that look scared even him a little. The guy didn't know what was coming for him; he'd been wrong in dismissing her as weak.

Except that what happened next was very far from what Gajeel had originally thought would happen.

Lucy, refusing to back down as the mage, his hands shimmering a dark, pulsing purple – the same purple as the statuettes outside – stepped towards her, had begun glowing. From the inside out, like a turned up glove with a torch shoved into it, she was _glowing_. It occurred to Gajeel then that this was the same kind of light that her spirits, and more particularly the Lion, exuded when she summoned them and when they used their powers. But the fact that the light resembled her spirits' seemed to have no root and only a head; it made no sense when applied to the context. Lucy wasn't a spirit. She was a human. So why was she glowing?

As he stared at her, she shouted something at the mage, loud enough that it echoed across the large cavern and he heard most of it. That he was shocked by what he heard would have been a monumental understatement. Her words were: "Eat your shit and go to _hell!_" Perhaps not much in his own judgment, but coming from her, those words were a far cry from the worst things he'd ever heard _her_ say. That man had really, really angered her. Whatever he'd been saying to her, she hadn't appreciated it. And Gajeel found himself grinning at her words, more than a little proud at her brutal rebuke, and just a tiny bit turned out by the feral look on her face.

And then she exploded, and the grin on his face was quick to fall off.

A startled yelp escaped him, and he swallowed down the rest of his exclamation, berating himself for his lapse in control even as his eyes took in her still-standing figure in the midst of the cloud of smoke that what looked and sounded much like an explosion had stirred up. The dark mage's figure was down; he saw that too, the body crumpled on the floor and silhouetted against the daylight of the hole that had just been blasted in the wall right behind Lucy.

_Damn, _he thought to himself, a little overwhelmed. _What the fuck just happened?!_

Looking down at himself, he realized that the ice had startle to crackle with the fall of the man who'd created it, and with one last violent contortion of his body, the huge block of ice fell apart around him. He tugged his numbed arms and legs free, then half-ran half-limped up to where the girl still stood across from him, her back ram-rod straight and her whip slack in her grip. Her face was down, her hair covering part of it, and though he couldn't see her eyes, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what was in them. The light he'd seen around her body was gone, and the Iron Dragon Slayer had a fairly good hunch that that light was what had caused the explosion; why she was left unscathed while all around her, in a diameter of a good twenty metres, everything else had been blasted to smithereens.

Gajeel stopped just inside the circle of destruction, hands stuffed into his pockets, and bumped a massive, steel-toed foot into the unmoving carcass of the purple mage. He couldn't see that guy's face either, but would've liked to see the look on his face at being beaten by someone he'd obviously been taunting and teasing and provoking not seconds before he'd died. Gajeel hummed a little, knowing that Erza wouldn't be too happy about that particularly thing; part of the mission had been to return the guy alive so that he could be handled by the Council, but since he was most certainly dead now, part of the reward had just been ripped from right under their noses. He didn't mind too much; the prize for the Grand Magic Games had been one comfortable enough when divided into the guild that each member could expect to live on it for at least a year without needing to work. They'd taken this mission because the guy had been causing serious rampage around here, and well, they were still mages from Mavis' sake; if they sat around too long they usually got bored, and either way, most of the mages at Fairy Tail were in the trade not just for money, but for the chance to do some good in this world. And that particular activity had no price.

Either way, and if he recalled correctly, the total sum for this mission had been pretty hefty, and even if it was divided by two because of their failure to bring the man back alive, they'd still be left with a substantial amount each. So for all these reasons and a few besides, he wasn't too worried about losing out on half of the bargain. On the other hand, what was definitely starting to get to him was blondie's silence.

"Oi, Bunny Girl," he called, just as she started to sway on her feet. He swore, taking an uncertain step forward, and then she was falling, and even running he couldn't make it on time there to stop her from hitting the overblown rocks fully. Her head bounced sharply off them, and Gajeel winced for her as he slid to a stop and fell to his knees in front of her.

He leaned down towards her face, startled when he saw her eyes still opened and searching for his own. Their gazes locked. Her lips moved. And even here, now, in the resounding silence echoing around them after that monster of an explosion, when her words would have been too low for any regular human to hear, he heard.

"Don't tell them I did this. Don't tell them it was me. Please."

And then she was gone. Her eyes slipped closed, her lips stopped moving, and she blacked out in a second. Right in front of him.

Turning a little frantic despite himself, Gajeel leaned forward, placing an ear between her collarbone and breast. Her heartbeat was there; weak, very weak, but there. He breathed a sigh of relief, then slipped his arms under her, one under legs and the other against her back, standing with her as he quickly made his way across the blasted expanse of blown up rocks. Throwing a kick into the Fire Dragon Slayer's stomach as he walked out, he was rewarded with the satisfying sound of a startled yelp followed by a coughing fit. He carried the girl outside the cavern and into the sunlight, growling a little when he saw Laxus making his way towards him at a trot on a little road surrounded by foliage.

"Where the fuck were you?" he hissed at the Lightning Dragon Slayer, stopping to gently lay the Celestial Mage down on the warmed, dry ground.

Laxus sneered at him as he came to a stop. "Saving your sorry asses," he spat at him. "There were a bunch of water Nymphs coming up this way. Disappeared minutes ago. I don't see anyone else still in any fighting state, so I s'pose I've got you to thank?"

Gajeel opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again as his gaze fell on the small, immobile blue and white figure of the Celestial Mage at his feet. He stood. He'd been about to say that no, Laxus didn't have him to thank, but Lucy – and then her words had struck him for the first time since he'd heard them. She'd asked him not to tell. She'd asked him to keep what he'd seen to himself. And though Gajeel couldn't see why she'd want to keep what had happened in that cave a secret, past the strange light he'd seen emanating from her – and he was by now wondering if he'd somehow hallucinated it –, he also couldn't see the downturn of doing what she'd asked him to do. After all, the flame-brain and the popsicle had been the first two to be knocked out; then Erza had been blasted out. He and Lucy had been the last two. Nobody else had seen anything. He could just take credit for the mage's defeat, and though he'd have to face down Erza's rage for the guy's death, he could easily wave it off as accidental, or as him getting a little overzealous. And then not only would he have fulfilled Bunny Girl's wish, but he might also get a little more respect from his teammates.

Gajeel grinned at that and corrected his previous train of speech. "Yeah," he said, answering the Lightning Dragon Slayer now standing beside him, facing the inside of the cave while Gajeel faced out from it. "Yeah, you've got me to thank all right."

* * *

_A/N2: **Fanart** is welcome. : 3_

___If you like my work, **please go like my page KuraraOkumura's Disciples on Facebook**; I update about my fics there and interact directly with my fans if you guyz have any questions. I also have a **tumblr, kuraraokumura**. :3 And please do check my profile for the poll I've left there. You can vote for what fic/fandom you'd prefer me to post for next. : P_

___~Tenshi_


	2. Chapter 2: Lantern On The River

_A/N: So first of all I wanna say that I'm so, SO happy with the response this story got. Nearly 70 followers, in a month and a half, for just ONE CHAPTER? I mean, have you any idea how amazing that is? I love you all for it 3 It's a new personal record tbh 3_

_Another thing: Please review? I mean, 70 followers (or close) is great, but only 6 reviews...? Not so great. :( Please please please review 3_

_More notes at the end of the chapter. :P Hope you enjoy the second chapter as much as you did the first one 3_

_And again, fanart is welcome. :33_

_~Tenshi_

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CHAPTER 2: Lantern on the River

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"But I don't want you to knock me out!"

"Natsu, be reasonable and think a minute. You're going to get sick again as soon as we get on, and I'd rather not have to deal with you_ and _Gajeel for the entire time that the train journey will last."

"Hey, don't talk 'bout me. I ain't gonna get sick."

Erza threw him a withering look from where she was leaning against the wall. Gajeel shrank back into the bench he was slouched on, but didn't take back his words.

"What about Laxus, then?" Natsu asked, pouting, and Gajeel was pretty sure by now that everyone but the Fire Dragon Slayer himself knew that he was only buying time before the Titania ended up knocking him out anyway.

At the other end of the bench, Laxus rolled his eyes and pulled one of his blaring earphones away from his ear. "I'm not gonna get sick, flame brain." The blonde man jabbed a finger towards his earphones for emphasis. "Music distracts me from motion sickness."

Ironically enough, Natsu suddenly turned very green at the simple mention of motion sickness. Taking advantage of the new shade of his face and of the fact that he was momentarily distracted, Erza lunged, a flurry of red and silver as she landed a punch at the back of his head. The Dragon Slayer dropped like a stone, and right on cue, the train that would lead them back home from their week-long mission pulled in.

Grunting, Gajeel and Laxus both pulled themselves up from the bench. Gajeel grabbed half of their suitcases, Laxus the other, the for-once-silent Gray hauled an unconscious Natsu onto his shoulder, and Erza slipped an arm under Lucy's armpits as the blonde pushed herself up from the ground, struggling. The six of them shuffled onto the train, finding an empty compartment nearly immediately and filing into it. Luckily, this train was a long distance one, and the compartments were twice as large as the usual trains, able to accommodate about eight people each instead of four or six. They fit easily into the one, luggage stored safely above them. A passed-out Natsu sleeping against Gray, Gajeel in the middle, and Laxus against the window all sat on one side, and Erza on the other with Lucy's head on her lap and the rest of her spread over the seats, asleep by the looks of it. It had been only yesterday that they'd completed their mission and collected their reward - or what was left of it after their fiasco -, and all of them, particularly the Celestial Mage, were still largely exhausted by their exploits. She'd spent the last twenty-four hours sleeping, and the rest of them, save the Requip mage, hadn't been too far behind in that regards.

Leaning back in his seat, Gajeel suddenly wished he'd taken the window seat before the Lightning Dragon Slayer had. Though he was never as bad as the flame-brain, who always ended up being sick before they'd even started moving, he still knew he'd be having a thoroughly unpleasant time for the next twenty-four hours of ride. He was honestly glad that this was a one-time mission; he didn't think he'd survive another return-trip to Sylva Island any time soon. Curse the old man for sending three Dragon Slayers out on a mission that necessitated a twenty-four hour train trip down and back.

Gajeel closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

X

After all six of them had dropped their luggage at their respective homes, they walked back to the guild, Lucy still leaning on Erza while Gray and Natsu walked ahead and Laxus and Gajeel lingered back, both of them yawning heavily. Contrary to the Fire Dragon Slayer, who had, thanks to the red-haired mage, slept for the entire train ride, the other two Dragon Slayers had spent the last twenty-four hours alternatively half-asleep and awake getting sick. It was only narrowly that they'd avoided Erza knocking _them _out too – and even then only out of pride. Any other day, Laxus would have been stalking ahead if not already at the guild, but having had very little sleep since the start of their mission, for once he hung back around Gajeel at the back of their little group. The two men didn't say anything, content to just walk in silence and put aside all of their past grudges for the briefest of minutes.

Ahead of them, the pink-haired Dragon Slayer pushed the doors to the Guild Hall open, and was immediately greeted by the resounding voices of the present guild members enquiring after their mission. Following after him and the popsicle, Erza roughly grabbed the giddy boy by the back of the collar, dragging him away from the gossipers and from his cat and towards the Guild Master's office, ignoring his loud protests. Gray followed the Requip mage grudgingly, his mood a little more toned-down than Natsu's due to having not yet completely recovered from getting his magic sucked out of him by the dark mage the previous day. Laxus and Gajeel weren't far behind, the first hailed by Bickslow and Freed, while the latter gruffly reassured a young blue-haired woman as to his well being.

Laxus snickered as the other man grumpily shooed Levy away, and Gajeel shot him a glare. "Got somethin' to say, Sparky?"

"Nah," the blonde smirked, ignoring the glare being shot his way. "So, have you turned her upside down yet?"

"Shut your trap," Gajeel growled, because even though it was easy to understand that Laxus was only having a bit of playful banter, Levy was his friend, and he wasn't about to let the other man speak like that about her.

"Mavis, will you calm down, Nail-Head," Laxus drawled, rolling his eyes. "I was only asking – you know, from man to man."

Gajeel just growled something unintelligible in answer, and the two left it at that.

Up in Makarov's office, all six of them stood in front of the old man sitting atop his desk instead of on the chair behind it, not minutes after having come into the Guild Hall. "So?" the Master enquired, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Master," Erza began, stepping forward with a respectful nod of her head, gently handing Lucy over for Gray to support instead of herself. "The mage on Sylva Island was a Water and Leech based mage. As reported, we can confirm that he had been creating and controlling the creatures of the island, which is what its villagers were forced out by. Gajeel took him out after the rest of us were incapacitated. Unfortunately, it turned out impossible to capture him alive. At this point, it was either him or us."

The old man nodded thoughtfully, appraising their battered and tired appearance one by one, lingering a little more on Lucy than on the rest of them. Silently, he raised his eyebrows at Erza, obviously confused at the Celestial Mage's state of exhaustion. Seeing his concern, the red-haired woman nodded back at him to indicate that she'd explain everything to him once they were alone. Satisfied with this, Makarov congratulated everyone else, and they were told to go home and rest.

"Gajeel," the old man called just as the Iron Dragon Slayer was about to walk out. The black-haired man turned with a scowl, and was met with the unflinching gaze of the Master of his Guild. "Stay back with Erza, please." Gajeel relented, crossing his arms over his chest resolutely and stepping out of the way to let everybody else walk out.

Once everyone but Makarov, the red-haired Requip mage and Gajeel were gone, the old man turned to Erza. "Now, Erza. Why was Lucy in such a state?"

Gajeel growled a little at being ignored, seething beside the door, but said nothing.

"As I said earlier, the mage was also Leech-based. Not only did he have the ability to use Gray's ice-magic against him, but he had also installed small purple statuettes outside the cave where he was holed – statuettes which, after closer inspection, appeared to be what was making us weaker, by sucking out our magic and making us use more than would normally have been necessary. And although Natsu, with his fire magic, didn't last long against water, and Laxus was held out of range of the statuettes fighting some of the mage's creatures, I suspect that Dragon Slayers are unaffected by this type of magic. Gajeel's abilities were never hindered by the mage's Leeches in the way that mine, Lucy's and Gray's were.

"My theory is that Lucy felt it more than we did because her Celestial Magic, calling on her spirits etc., reaches outside of herself to work. She doesn't create her magic the way Gray creates ice or the way I change equipment. Her spirits – Loki, Plue – come from outside of herself, and I think that's why the statuettes drained her more than they drained us. In addition, she stayed in that cave, conscious and fighting, for much longer than either myself or Gray. She and Gajeel were the last two fighting."

Erza didn't move once she was done talking, waiting patiently as the old man pondered on what she had just said. Eventually, Makarov seemed to reach a conclusion, and his gaze went up to meet Gajeel, staring squarely at him from across the room. With a wave of his hand, Erza was dismissed, and she threw the Iron Dragon Slayer standing beside the door one last withering glance – which he royally returned – as she passed him to rejoin her friends in the Guild's main Hall. There was a moment of silence as Master and Dragon Slayer appraised each other, and then Makarov sighed and turned away from the other man, rubbing a tired hand across his face. Gajeel was momentarily taken aback by this unusual show of weakness, and his eyes widened fractionally before he schooled his features back into an irritated scowl.

"Watcha want, old man," he growled, not so much a question as an order.

"Gajeel, as much as I appreciate nurturing the idea that you may have tried your best to protect my children, I know what the truth is. Lucy killed that mage, didn't she?"

He started. What the…? How did the old fart know that?

"I told ya," he drawled, feigning irritation. "I killed him. What makes ya think Bunny Girl did?"

"Gajeel," Makarov repeated, a hint of warning in his voice this time. Gajeel scowled, but didn't say anything. Makarov sighed and faced him again as he said, "Ever since the Games, Lucy has been having difficulties controlling her magic. Two months ago, she nearly blasted off half of the training area's grounds – would have if Mira had not been there to calm her down. Only the Celestial spell Urano Metria matched up to the potential destruction Lucy could have wrecked upon us that day.

"It appears that the gap between the Celestial World and this one has been widened considerably, and while this has made it easier for her and other Celestial Mages to summon their spirits, powerful mages like Lucy have also experienced a recrudescence of their Spirits' magic. It seems that it is no longer Spirits who have sole control of Celestial Magic, but also their owners. And with the number of Major, Zodiac keys in Lucy's possession… Their energy is proving too much. She can't control all of it, and it is showing more and more with every day that passes."

Makarov gave a heavy sigh, shaking his head before looking back up at Gajeel, who hadn't moved from his spot beside the door and was still staring at him fixedly. "I expect that it is Lucy who killed that mage – accidently, I'll agree. And I expect that she was surrounded by a blinding white light, which reminded you of her Spirits' magic, and that that magic caused a circular explosion which killed the mage and left her exhausted – possibly unconscious. Am I right?" Makarov looked at him, and Gajeel bared his teeth. "Gajeel, if that's what you're worried about, I'm not going to punish her for killing him. If anything, that man deserved to die. No, what I'm more worried about is the reason why you've decided to take credit for what she did. If you're planning on hurting her with the knowledge, then I-"

"Oh for fuck sake!" Gajeel exploded, uncrossing his arms and letting one of his fists bang loudly against the wall he'd been leading against. "I'm not gonna blackmail her, Gramps! Whoever the fuck you think I am, well that ain't me! I'm taking credit 'cause she asked me not to tell the others what she did – that's all there is to it! Are ya done now?!" And without waiting for an answer, Gajeel stormed out of the old man's office, ignoring the way his head throbbed, because he'd just broken the promise that the girl had unknowingly made him take. He'd just told someone the truth – he'd just revealed the fact that she had killed someone, perhaps for the first time. Because he'd figured out, deep in his heart, that that was the real reason that she hadn't wanted anyone to know that she had been the one to beat the dark mage. She hadn't wanted her friends to see her as a killer, and in himself, Gajeel was sure that it had taken something out of her to kill another human being like that – even accidentally, even though if she hadn't done what she had, they'd probably all be dead by now.

He knew well enough what it was like to take another life for the first time.

He knew how much it could change a person.

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_A/N: So my Beta has abandoned me. She hasn't been online for something like three weeks/a month, which is why this chapter took so long to update. I was waiting for her to Beta it when she came online - except she never did. So I decided to update anyway. I'm sorry if there are any mistakes in these. If you feel like volunteering as Beta for Stars and Dragons, please message me! I need someone who's active and serious about being a Beta, who has a keen eye for mistakes and typos and incompatibilities with the anime/manga._

_Don't forgot the poll on my profile page, and also my Facebook page, KuraraOkumura's Disciples. ^_^_

_~Tenshi_


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